Cohan says that increased regulation and capital requirements will mean that Wall Street firms will struggle to make the returns of years gone by, big bonus bankers will be fewer and far between, and graduates coming up through the ranks will be increasingly less likely to view Wall Street as a career of choice.

Cohan predicts: 'Not only will the headcount reduction on Wall Street continue for the foreseeable future, but the vast sums overpaid to bankers and traders will inevitably continue to fall as well..... There is simply no easier and quicker way for Wall Street firms to keep up a modicum of profitablility than by cutting pay for the people who still work there'.

In the meantime, Reuters reports that Morgan Stanley has said in a US filing that 580 of the 1,600 jobs it recently confirmed would go at the firm will come from its 1221 Avenue of the Americas, 1 New York Plaza and 1585 Broadway and 750 Seventh Avenue locations.

And Bloomberg reports that a Hong Kong Court Judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by Deutsche Bank against Nomura's Asia corporate solutions and financing head (ex-Japan) Daniel Mamadou can go forward. The German bank alleges that Mamadou breached a confidentiality clause in his contract with the bank as he disclosed employee information to Nomura to assist the firm in recruiting them. The banker has described the accusations as 'baseless', and has vowed to 'vigorously contest them'.

Finally, some better news. The Daily Star reports that some JPMorgan staff enjoyed a good old Christmas bash at London's 'plush' Chinawhite nightclub earlier this month. The newspaper claims that 'partygoers said that around £100,000 was splashed out on champaign and luxury canapes, while the bank forked out £50,000 to hire renowned DJ Pete Tong'. Did anyone tell Jamie Dimon ?